Goodbye October! It's been fun!

Happy Halloween! The candy is ready, now I am just waiting to see if any of the kiddies show up before I eat it all! Reese's, Butterfingers and Whoppers are here for the taking...

This past weekend was packed with a bunch of different things. We left last week and headed up to Oakland, CA where I attended the Oral History Association Annual meeting and gave a presentation about the Nevada Test Site project I have been working on. My husband stayed with a friend of ours and went fishing on the Russian River. On the last night of the conference, I took BART into San Francisco and met my husband and our good friend, Andrew for dinner. I got to check out Andrew's really cool SF house on one of the notorious hills with the fabulous view of the city and experience a tiny bit of the hipster lifestyle. Off the dinner, we had a bit of trouble finding a parking spot, but once the car was situated, we ate a yummy dinner and drank several refreshing Lagunitas beers at Park Chow in one of SF's many bustling neighborhoods. After dinner, we continued our adventure with a driving tour through the Castro neighborhood and a stop at the Bi Rite Creamery where I had the best sundae ever (coffee ice cream, toffee crumbles, hot fudge, almonds, and whipped cream)! Then I was dropped at the BART station and headed back to my hotel. After my presentation, we hit the road to Roseville, CA where we met up with family for the rest of the weekend.

When we arrived in town, we were just in time for our niece and nephew's school Halloween carnival. Once the kids were in costume, we went up to the carnival, where we ate candy, walked around and checked out all the costumes and the kids won goldfish at the carnival games. After the carnival, we all went home and ate pizza (with wine for the grown-ups) and called it a night. Saturday was my official birthday and we spent it watching the kids' soccer games, hiking in the Auburn State Recreation Area along the American River, and catching up on news together before dinner. My relatives decided to take me to Folsom, CA (of Johnny Cash Folsom Prison fame) for my birthday dinner. The town is really cute and done up like an old western town with shops and stuff for tourists. After some browsing, we made a beeline to My Brother Vinny's for eggplant parmesan, zinfindel, and a fabulous view from the outdoor patio. It was a wonderful dinner, and afterwards we couldn't resist going over to Snooks just to make sure we all had plenty of sugar in our systems! Back at home, I opened my birthday presents (thanks guys!!!), ate some yummy apple/blackberry/sour cream pie and watched home videos on DVD (has it really been five years since our wedding???) On Sunday, we had a chill-out day and hung out by the pool, ran over to the mall, and cooked a tri-tip on the grill.

It was a great visit, but all too soon we needed to head back to Nevada. We said our goodbyes, loaded Pocky into the truck and headed out through Tahoe. On the way through northern Nevada, we stopped in Virginia City to walk around and look at the historic townsite. From there it was a long, drive through the Silver State. We got home and relaxed a bit before it was back to work.

Well, I just got my first trick-or-treater (a pirate)...so I guess I better get ready for the onslaught! It has been an awesome October!